Very Angry

[dthomas31uk]

Just started using an Indian SEO company that I picked up from freelancer website. They said that they would definitely use white hat SEO techniques. After 3 weeks I have received an email from one of my competitors saying that he is going to report my site to google because I had been spamming his blog. Anyway the text that the indian SEO company had sent to my competitor was using a false email address and a very generalised post along with a link to my site. I am very angry and now am not sure what to do with my seo campaign. Have started to do a bit myself, but its very time consuming and dont seem to be getting anywhere quick. Have being looking for blog and forums I can post on that is in my niche, directories, but its a pain registering everytime and then submitting the information manually.

Can anyone advise or give tips

[r937]

Can anyone advise or give tips

do not (repeat: not) use SEO companies that you cannot visit in person and speak to their reps face to face

[dthomas31uk]

Wish I had thought that earlier r937. The website is my livelihood if google bans my site I am fooked. Be honest it was cheap and the practices they said they were going to do seemed all good. What do you recommend ie SEO company or do it myself. Not 100% confident doing the SEO myself.

[r937]

i am by no means an seo expert, but from years of watching the development of seo practices, i think i can safely say that anyone can do their own seo, ~provided~ they stick to white hat, and concentrate on improving their content rather than on "seo techniques"

[cbp]

IMHO, there is a big difference between a professional SEO and a SEO Shop. Most of those based in India are SEO Shops and they just sell crap link programs.

Unfortunalty, you are accountable for what they did.

[Stevie D]

Just started using an Indian SEO company that I picked up from freelancer website.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that's a pretty daft thing to do. All you need to do is to spend an hour or two browsing this forum, and you'll be amazed at the number of people from India who are peddling their "SEO Services" websites while at the same time asking mind-bogglingly dumb questions like "Pls tell me how gooogle works tnx".

[JakeCop]

You don't necessarily need to meet someone in person for them to effectively perform SEO for you, but you need to be sure they know what they're doing. You should be able to see their testimonials from existing clients, speak to them on the phone and read their website to know how they do things.

Be warned though; even some of the better known SEO companies use Indian suppliers (or even suppliers from other countries) because of the cost advantages. You could use a well known SEO company and still find your content written by people with English as a second language.

[dthomas31uk]

Yeah. It all looked a decent project proposal. They emailed me a proposal and what they intended to do etc. which all seemed fine.

Have had an email from them this morning saying that they had Noted about the complaint I had received from one of competitors because we posted a comment on his blog.

The Indian SEO said that 'Blog commenting is a totally normal mode of operation in the process of SEO. We are NOT causing spam when you just comment on a few blogs a week'.

OK then. Try telling that to google. Crazy!

[akhomiyar]

I am from India and dislikes branding of an entire country on a wrong doing of certain individual.

a very generalised post along with a link to my site.

As per your information the post is a very generalized blog comment. And if is sent only once which does not involve any abusive language or personal attacks there is no need for any alarm as google is not going to ban you for it.
Else all you have to do is create a false email and put comments on different blogs using your competitors name.
Moreover on selection of a SEO company you need to be careful and monitor their work as it is a risky proposition basically if the site is a form of livelyhood.

[dthomas31uk]

I must say Akhomiyar you have made a very good point and I hope you are correct with what you are saying.

As per your information the post is a very generalized blog comment. And if is sent only once which does not involve any abusive language or personal attacks there is no need for any alarm as google is not going to ban you for it.
Else all you have to do is create a false email and put comments on different blogs using your competitors name.

I am not generalizing all Indian SEO, but the SEO company I used made me very angry and I did not like the way they went about posting very vague comments on my competitors blogs. Not a very good thing to do, don't you think?
Looking at the way they went about doing the SEO for my website I could have done better myself!

[akhomiyar]

I do think that the particular company in question did wrong and advise you to terminate their contract and ask for refunds if they have such a policy.

Spamming is indeed an offence to be taken seriously.

go thru this it might help : Choosing A SEO Company

[dvduval]

I've been doing this 10 years and 95% of the SEO was done by me personally, or at least outlined in detail by me personally. There are people that literally make $2/hour doing SEO and don't care about their job or their customers. The only thing you can do now is pick up the pieces and move on and hope you didn't get penalized by google.

[Stevie D]

I am from India and dislikes branding of an entire country on a wrong doing of certain individual.

Sorry if I have caused offence. Although you've not been a member of SPF for long, the high quality of your posts was immediately evident - they are generally thoughtful, insightful and accurate. However, I'm sure you will agree that if you look at most of the posts from most of your countrymen, they fall a long way short of that high standard. While not wanting in any way to denigrate your work or any other individual's (although there are many that I could), I think it's entirely fair to say that highly dodgy SEO services peddled by people who have a long way to go before they even get to 'clueless' seems to be the current fad for making a quick buck in India at the moment (at least in terms of what we see here).

[cbp]

I am from India and dislikes branding of an entire country on a wrong doing of certain individual..

India deserves the reputation it gets. The vast majority of spam on my forums and blogs come from India. Its more than one person, its a whole industry based in India. Until such a time this stops, all SEO coming out of India will have to deal with this reputation.

[akhomiyar]

Sorry if I have caused offence. Although you've not been a member of SPF for long, the high quality of your posts was immediately evident - they are generally thoughtful, insightful and accurate. However, I'm sure you will agree that if you look at most of the posts from most of your countrymen, they fall a long way short of that high standard. While not wanting in any way to denigrate your work or any other individual's (although there are many that I could), I think it's entirely fair to say that highly dodgy SEO services peddled by people who have a long way to go before they even get to 'clueless' seems to be the current fad for making a quick buck in India at the moment (at least in terms of what we see here).

None taken. I can generalize with the fact that most of the mindless post in any successful forum are made with the intention of getting a backlink. But little do people realise the difference between a Page Rank & SERP.

[akhomiyar]

India deserves the reputation it gets. The vast majority of spam on my forums and blogs come from India. Its more than one person, its a whole industry based in India. Until such a time this stops, all SEO coming out of India will have to deal with this reputation.

To it I can also say that most of my blogs and my client's blogs are getting spams from .au, .cn & .ru email ids. Does this means Chinese, Australians and Russians are also spamming industries. No, it is only a few individuals fault.

Sir, please don't make allegations and if you want to do it please float a personal blog. Forums are places to share knowledge not make demean anyone or any country.

[theseoguys]

I don't want to sound like a you know what, but it is so true that you get what you pay for. A while back, I outsourced some stuff overseas (not India) for a boost. It bought me a penalty. Personally, I would Google SEO or something, and if the company is on page 1, then they know what they are doing, and obviously are doing it right. And if that's the cost, then I guess that is the cost.

If something does happen, file a request for reconsideration, and honestly, come clean. Tell them what you did, and you will never do it again. The process is fair, and works. But don't lose any sleep until it does or doesn't happen. Oh, and in the meantime, fire the Indian SEO company.

[EastCoast]

My business contact form despite having a message clearly stating 'not interested in offshore or outsourced services' receives the following:

95% of dozens of spam messages we get every week trying to sell outsourced services are from Indian companies.
4% are from Indian companies masquerading as Western companies.
1% from Eastern Europe.
All other countries globally seem to understand the message.

I've had to put IP detection on the contact page to not display the telephone number to any visitors from India because of the amount of time wasted in answering pointless calls from Indian companies.

Whether it might be unfortunate that an entire country is being cast in this light, the facts are the facts. It seems there is a major cultural difference between what is acceptable professional communication and sales conduct between India and the West, and this extends to communication such as forums too.

[cbp]

Have a look at this:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/...1e13d5d2&hl=en

and you wander why "SEO's" from India have such a bad reputation

[dthomas31uk]

Have a look at this:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/...1e13d5d2&hl=en

and you wander why "SEO's" from India have such a bad reputation

That is crazy cbp. They should not be allowed to get away with that

[cbp]

That is crazy cbp. They should not be allowed to get away with that

Here is another "SEO" from India asking really simple stuff, like how to get sitelinks for their own SEO site!:
How to show all pages on search query? - Webmaster Central Help

They did not even know they are called "sitelinks", yet somehow get away with chargeing people money for SEO!

[transio]

In the case of your competitor, explain the situation to him, and offer to exchange links with him. Might be an opportunity for a future partnership there... no sense burning bridges when he's already shown his willingness to communicate.

[cbp]

Have a look at this:
how to do seo with Australian web sites? - Webmaster Central Help

and you wander why "SEO's" from India have such a bad reputation

Here is another yet "SEO" from India that has no idea about their own site's rankings:
why my website dropped in the rankings of Google - Webmaster Central Help

[cbp]

What is it about SEO's from India, not knowing what they are doing?

Here is yet another:
My blog has removed my google from its Index - Webmaster Central Help

what a hoot!

[TheRaptor]

A friend of mine has hired several "web developers" from India. He asked one of them to finish a script he was working on, a few days later the "web developer" was found posting on a forum asking how to do the work he was supposed to be getting paid for.

I am not going to down the entire country, because I do believe there are a few good hard working people from India, but the ones I've worked with personally and the ones I've heard about fall far short of the standard.

Good advice here, I would just wait and see if anything happens.